The Victimisation of Moderate Muslims

We have all read about how moderate/liberal minded Muslims have been the target of assassinations in Pakistan and how some of them have been forced to flee conservative Islamic societies in order to stay alive. But here in the UK, the Muslim community is far more religiously conservative than many Muslim majority societies.

It is shocking but not surprising to learn that one of Britain’s leading moderate Muslim Imams is being hounded out of his job for expressing views which are unpalatable to the conservative Muslims.

There has been a concerted campaign by many Muslims to remove Usama Hasan from his post as Imam of Masjid al-Tawhid in Leyton, East London. The “charges” against him are:

Seeking to reconcile Islam with the theory of evolution

Claiming that the Hijab is not mandatory

Acceptance of secularism in the practice of good governance

It’s important to note that the elements of religious intolerance which are seeking to remove him are not extremist Muslims but mainstream conservative Muslims. It just goes to show how intolerant and thuggish traditional Muslims have become and how liberal Muslims are the real victims, even here in the UK. This campaign to denounce Hasan have included calling him an unbeliever and an apostate. Needless to say that these accusations come with the calls for his execution which some have been “brave” enough to make. This is an episode straight out of the Middle Ages in Europe when scientists were attacked for challenging conventional wisdoms like the earth being flat or a geo-centric universe.

Here is a video of the events last Saturday which gives an indication of the chaos and backwardness that Hasan was subjected to at the meeting when he presented his thesis in support of evolution at Masjid Tawhid.

The evidence that exists for evolution today is undisputable. The fact that we have evolved from less sophisticated species and have origins in Africa has also been proven by DNA records. There are also records which prove that humans have been around for over 200,000 years and the sheer diversity of humans on this planet makes the belief that we are all the offspring of a single couple from Arabia look laughable. In truth, the Adam and Eve story in my view is merely the story of the Semitic people. It is highly likely that this couple moved to Arabia from Africa or the Yemen at some stage and started from there. Even then it is highly unlikely that their children married each other, if that was the case then they wouldn’t have survived at all.

So when Abrahamic faiths talk of Adam and Eve being their ancestors, they are probably right. But obviously the writers of the Quran and Bible were not aware of what was going on in the rest of the world. Obviously the story of Adam and Eve had been passed down through generations and so they assumed that they must have been the first human beings. The fact that people still believe this nonsense in 2011 is very worrying indeed.

How does evolution explain the ‘Cambrian Explosion’. I certainly ain’t no descendant of an ape but I assure you Spittoon is run by a very unusual type of ape. And theres plenty of them airing their monkey business here.

Ah an imbecile as well as a fascist Jihadi loving maniac, no wonder you imbeciles go around blowing yourselves up, sick, porridge for brains, lunatic virgin jihadis, you are all as thick as pig shit, how you people even manage to breath must surely be one of humanities greatest unsolved mysteries.

Hey imbecile what’s a half x a half =

Jihadis, the one plausible explanation for where all the Neanderthals went.

Even though I wouldn’t usually defend an ‘imbecile’, I take great exception to your post. If a person does not believe in evolution, then you condemn them as a Jihadist?

That makes no sense at all – the Christian Right in America for example would not countenance evolution as possible – would you accuse them of being Jihadis or Neanderthals? No – thus actually, you are a racist, pure and simple.

I think the issue here is quite simple. The overwhelming majority of scientists in the world today believe in Evolution. They may, of course, be wrong. They may be right. Either way, those who believe in a religion – be it Islam, Hindusim or whatever – have to decide whether a belief in both is tenable, and if not, which belief should take precedence over the other.

For me, I see no issue in believing in both evolution and Islam. I do believe, however, that the very nature of human beings, and their capacity to reason and understand certainly implies some ‘special’ and ‘divine’ assistance was involved.

The thought of a random universe giving birth to a species which understands it, is, I believe, one of the most unbelievable ideas I have come across. It is a wonder why so many otherwise intellectual people find it so easy to believe!

Evolution is a scientific theory. Personally I think there are still many facts debatable about biological evolution.

The reception however is ridiculous and people need to think about it scientifically. Despite there being “evidence” for theories, the nature of science is that it always changes. Maybe the Evolution will be disproved in a hundred years and then revisited and perfected a thousand years from now. We

There needs to be a slight correction here, we have not descended from apes, we ARE apes. We and Apes had a common ancestor, millions of years ago, apes evolved into a different branch and humans into a different branch. However, in essence humans are the 5th great ape.

I have the utmost respect for Hassan for standing up to the brainless cowards who butcher Islam, for their own political gain.

much of science is based on what is believed, or accepted as probable.
universe/multiverse, big bang/big crunch etc.
therefor, science is as faith based as religeon.
however, science has logic on its side, if the qu’ran and bible are to be taken literally.
we may be apes, but any claims that we are the smartest are questionable.

1) The “Cambrian explosion” lasted tens of millions of years. That’s plenty of time for evolution to produce a large amount of speciation. I guarantee you that in a million years humans won’t be able to reproduce with humans of today. If we’re able to go to the stars and colonize other planets I’ll bet that there will be several different species of humans by then. Evolution explains this quite handily.

2) A theory is not a fact, it’s an explanation. In science a theory is an explanation that best fits the facts. Evolution is both a fact and a theory. It’s a fact in that it’s been observed in both the laboratory and in the wild. We see it happening. It’s an explanation which takes account of most of the facts we’ve gathered so far. (There are areas where the theory needs to be refined to explain some phenomena, but on the whole it’s quite accurate.)